Harte's Hope
by Harte-Lore
Summary: Basically, a 'What if' story. What if the Dursleys weren't Harry's only family? What if he had a cousin? What if said cousin had removed him from the house before Hogwarts? Follow Harry's new adventures.. Warning- Yaoi, child abuse, evil dumblydore, ect
1. Chapter 1

Harte- Hokay, peoples. this is kinda my first fanfic, well, the first one I've actually written down, anyways, and I'd appreciate pointers, criticism, even outright flames. Yep. Umm... read the story?

Lore- By the way, the author doesn't own Harry Potter or Beyblade. If the author did, then said shows/books/movies would have a whole lot more making out and... stuff...

* * *

"Bryan? Can I call you Bryan?"

At his nod, the doctor straightened his coat nervously and continued on,"Well, Bryan, as you know, you were unconscious for quite a while... we, umm, well, we took the liberty-"

Bryan Kuznetsov, former member of the Demolition Boys and owner of the bit-beast Falborg, sat up from the hospital bed and let loose a terrifying glare. Stupid, idiotic, overpaid pansies, the lot of them.

"What. Did. You. Do?" he asked, voice sounding like the growl of the helldog Cerberus himself. Of course, he didn't really think it was all that intimidating, what with his (embarrassingly) thick accent making it sound more like 'Vat dit yoo doo', but apparently, he could still make adults act like chickens. Joy.

The doctor flinched back and, trembling, stammered and stuttered his way through an explanation.

"W-well, you see, a-as a whole, we- the doctors of this facility, u-umm, decided that it would, err, be in your best interest,well, you know what I mea-"

"No, you idiot! I _don't _know what you mean! You're too busy studdering and mumbling to yourself!"

The doctor recoiled at Bryan's harsh tone.

"Wetookasampleofyourbloodandranitthroughadatabasesearchingforlivingrelatives!"

"Huh?"

"What he means to say, Bry, it that, without your permission, they took a sample of your blood and ran it through the new database. You know, the one used for reuniting lost children to their families?"

Bryan's gaze flicked from the doctor to the tall redhead leaning against the door frame.

"Tala. Nice to see you."

"And you, Bry, though it's more like 'nice to see you awake'," Tala said as he pushed himself off the wall. He stretched his arms high above his head and twisted from side to side. Bryan winced at the, admittedly, disgusting sound of his lover's back cracking. What? It was gross!

Suddenly, Tala turned towards him, his face serious.

'Crap...' Bryan thought. 'Freaking bad shit happens whenever Tal gets serious...'

"They got a hit, Bryan."

Bryan's eyes widened.

"No! That... how! I... Tal, what am I going to do?"

Tala sat down on the bed next to him.

"He's seven, Bry. Just turned seven. His birthday's July 31st. There aren't any pictures of him that I can find, and the only thing in the system about him is his birth certificate and the note that both his parents died when he was one. His name is Harte," he said, wrapping and arm around Bryan's shoulders. Bryan leaned into the embrace, accepting Tala's offer of comfort.

"Harte..."

"Your his cousin. Your mother was his father's sister."

"I... I don't know what to do, Tal."

Tala looked at him, once again serious.

"You don't have a choice, Bry. You're underage."

"I... no... No! No, любовь(1)! They're not going to take me away again!"

"Bryan!"

Tala placed his hands on Bryan's shoulders and turned him to face him. (a/n: stupid awkward sentences, with all the him's and he's...) Bryan was shaking. His face and eyes were blank of all emotion, but Tala could feel him trembling.

"It'll only be for a couple of weeks," he continued. "You're almost of age, as is. Besides," he said with a smirk, "do you really believe we'd let you go all by yourself? Dickenson has a property up there that he'll let us borrow, as long as we don't destroy it _too_ bad..."

Bryan snorted, all emotional distress gone in a blink of an eye.

"And how the hell do you think you'll manage that with little Ivan around, hmm?"

"I'm sure we can figure something out..."

"Like tying him up, sticking a piece of duct tape over his mouth, and shoving him in a closet?"

Tala pouted.

"Oh come on, you lock a kid up in a closet _once_ and no one ever let's it go!"

Bryan laughed and flopped backwards onto the bed.

"But, Bryan..."

He glanced over at Tala, who had on his serious (bad shit is goin' down) expression on.

"Take the chance you have. Get to know the kid."

"I will, Tala," Bryan sighed, "I will."

....

"Just how the hell did you end up in the hospital, anyway?"

"...shit."

* * *

Well, first chapter. There ya go. Criticise, complement, or flame all you will. Or you can completely forgo commenting all together, though I have to say that would probably get annoying...

1= Love (maybe)

Anybody know Russian? I'm pretty rusty...


	2. Teh Second Chapteh! no duh

Harte- Hello, peoples. This is the second chapter of the fanfic. I know it's really short, but so is my attention span, so it's kina hard to write something really long...

I also realized that I forgot to put up warnings... oops... Well, this has Yaoi, child abuse, evil dumbles, ron/ginny bashing, umm... nice snape, and many more?

**Lore- The author also would like to inform you that the author doesn't own HP/BB, because if they did, well... it would _not _be a small childern's TV show/book/movie. Yeah.**

Harte- Does anyone know if you have to put up those things every chapter?

* * *

"Brat! Why are you lazing about! Make breakfast, now!" yelled a... rather horsey looking woman.

"Y-yes, Ma'am..."

A small, sickly looking child -no older than six, surely- scurried out from the cupboard under the stairs that was his home, letting out a small cough. He decided not to mention the fact that he _couldn't_have started breakfast because the deadbolt on the door had been thrown. He stood no taller than four feet, with long, slightly curly black hair and startling green eyes that were hidden behind thick, taped up glasses. He was thin almost to the point of being dangerously skinny. His clothes looked to be several sizes too large and they were worn and ragged. He plucked a spider out of his hair and gently put it back in the cupboard before hurrying to the kitchen.

"W-what shall i m-m-make today, ma'am?" he asked quietly, standing still with his head bowed, coughing softly.

"The same thing you make every day, idiot! Now get! And stop your stupid coughing! I don't want your germs to infect my perfect little Diddydums, freak."

The boy hopped up onto a tall stool and began to make breakfast, which consisted of almost two pounds of bacon, an obscene amount of eggs, several large sausages, and a bowl of fresh fruit. When the ceiling began to creak, he glanced up and saw his cousin, Dudley Dursley and his uncle, Vernon Dursley plopping down the stairs, sounding like a small herd of elephants. By the time they reached the kitchen, they were huffing from the exertion.

"BOY! Where's my food!"

"H-here, sir." the small child said, his words interspersed with coughs. He carried a very large plate to the table, his thin arms shaking with the weight, and placed it in front of his uncle before repeating the same process with his cousin.

"You better not have gotten your nasty germs in my food, boy, or there will be hell to pay."

"Y-yes sir."

"There's a list of chores on the fridge. You don't get any food till the entire list is completed, hear me, boy?"

"Yes, s-sir."

"Go."

The boy accepted the long list that was thrown at him and skimmed through it. He sighed. It looks like he would not be eating today.

** Freak's Chores**

**Clean the kitchen**

**Mow the lawn**

**Do the laundry**

**Mop the floors**

**Vacuum the house**

**Weed the garden**

**Do the dishes**

**Cook lunch**

**Do the dishes**

**Clean the kitchen**

**Clean out Dudder's second bedroom**

**Assemble new furniture**

**Make dinner**

**Clean the kitchen**

_'Wait... clean out the second bedroom? What new furniture?'_

He was curious, so curious, but knew better than to ask questions. All he ever got for his troubles was a quick beating and an even quicker trip to his cupboard. But... he _did_ need to know where the furniture was... maybe...

"M-ma'am?"

"What, freak?" his aunt, Petunia Dursley, twirled around and glared at him. He cringed backwards, but continued on his quest for knowledge. He coughed. Yeah, right, he just wanted to keep his curiosity from eating him alive...

"I-i need t-to know where th-th-the furniture is a-and what it's f-for, so I c-c-can put it t-together properly."

She snorted and turned away from him.

"The boxes are in the garage. It turns out that my brother spawned a child, and has left him to us. He always was a good for nothing..."

A cousin?! He had a cousin?

"...and I expect the room to be ready by tomorrow, you hear? If it's not, then Vernon will... take care of you."

He shuddered and cringed away at the reminder.

"Y-y-yes m-ma'am."

"Good. Now, stop lazing about, you freak!" she said, throwing out a hand and slapping him across the face. He toppled to the floor but hopped right back up again, darting towards the door into the kitchen. He easily fell into the rhythm of washing dishes, loosing himself in his thoughts. A cousin... what would he look like? Would he be tall, or short, like him? Would he look like Dudley? Or Vernon? Oh, he hoped not... What colour would his hair be? Blond? Maybe black, like his own? Or maybe even pink! He let out a quiet giggle that ended in a cough, amused at his internal rambling. Pink hair? Really? Like that would ever happen...

* * *

Oh, yes, little boy, _like that would ever happen_...

Ok, you know, feedback? Opinions? Any hints, tips, pointers, do's/don'ts, misspelled words I didn't notice? Any thing you'd like to happen? I'm not going to beg for reviews, but I would appreciate them...

**Lore- The author is hinting...**

I am not! Idiot...


	3. Third

I hate this place.

Perhaps living with Kai, in his over-the-top, multicultural house, had biased me, but any place that was so... so _boring!_ just doesn't sit right.

_Every single house was exactly the same._

It drives me nuts! How could these people even tell which house was theirs? Kai's house was slightly plain on the outside, but you could definitely freaking tell that it was different. It was the size of a hotel, for god's sakes! Maybe it was only the outsides that were so... uniform. Surely the insides were different...

I pounded on the door, once, twice, three times and waited for an answer. A... human? child, maybe? (looked more like a pig...) opened the door and glared at me.

"Whatdiya want?"

Well, I hope to gawd this isn't my cousin...

"My name is Bryan Kusnetsov. Your parents are home, yes?"

"MAAAAM!"

Oh, that _godawful_ shriek!

"SOME WEIRDOS AT THE DOOOOORRRRR!"

Really, this pig just deserved a good, long stay at the Abbey. Not even five minutes and I already hate the kid.

"Who is it, Diddydums?"

My eye twitched. Diddydums? The hell...?

"My name is Bryan Kusnetsov. I believe you received a letter regarding my placement here...?"

"Oh. Yes. Come in." The rather tall, horse like lady flounced inside as if I had done her a great injustice. Wench.

"Stay. I'll go fetch Vernon- your... uncle."

I glanced around the living room and the attached kitchen, taking in the myriad of pictures- all featuring the same three people (the horse, the pig, and the whale, who I assume is my uncle) the sterility, more reminiscent of a hospital that a home, the pig, who was sitting on an overly large sofa eating chips in front of (what would have been) an impressive television (if you did not live with a multi-billionaire), and the lack of even a hint at another child living in the house. It was unnerving, actually. Unless this... fat glob _is_ my cousin, which I refuse to believe, even for a second, the child would have to be a ghost for him to leave this little trace.

"This is your uncle Vernon."

Oh. The horse was back.

"It is... a pleasure to meet you, sir."

A pleasure, my ass. I'd rather jump off a bridge.

"You're Bryan, eh, boy?"

Yes, you dimwitted tub of lard.

"That is my name."

As I'd said. Multiple times.

"This is my son, _Dudley_ Dursley. I'm sure you boys'll get along fine."

Oh, thank GAWD!

"Dudders, come over here and greet your cousin."

"But maaaaammmmm!" he whined, pieces of chips falling out of his mouth onto the spotless floor, "I don't wanna!"

"Ok, duddy-dear, you don't do anything you don't want to."

The blatant spoiling was disgusting. If I, or any of the team, even Kai, had pulled a stunt like that in the abbey, we would have had extra training for a week, and been reduced living off of to military rations on top of that!

"Mrs. Dursley?"

"Yes?"

Not even an offer to call you Aunt? Going to pretend I'm not related to you, hmm? I can live with that...

"I would like to rest. The plane ride from Russia to England is very long..."

No duh, idiots.

"Ah, yes , of course! Boy! Come here, NOW!"

I almost jumped at the sudden change in tone. I heard a cough, directly behind me, and it took almost all my willpower not to whirl around and strike whoever had snuck up behind me. I hadn't heard a thing! Even _Rei_ wasn't that quiet!

"Y-yes, ma'am?"

"Lead Bryan to his room, then finish your chores."

"Yes, m-ma'am."

I turned around and looked around for whoever was supposed to be leading me to my room. I don't see- ah. There we go. Hell, this kid is short!

"T-this way, Mr. K-k-kusnetsov."

Oh, human intelligence, how I love thee... I didn't have to repeat my name! Or maybe I did. Damn it.

"Call me Bryan, kid. What is your name?"

"...Harte." he said, coughing lightly into a clenched fist.

Harte?

I took a closer look at the child. No way could he be seven. He was just... too _small_. I was pushing it, saying he looked five. He wasn't just small, though. He looked thin enough to snap in half! He couldn't have weighed more than thirty pounds. His skin was incredibly pale and, combined with his slightly long black hair, it looked translucent. I could see the faint outline of his veins wherever the ragged, obviously hand-me-down clothes ended. There were dark smudges under his eyes, and an almost constant cough wracked his small frame. His entire body was shaking ever so slightly, from what, I had no idea.

Oh shite.

There, on his cheekbone, underneath his right eye, was a large, dark bruise, roughly the shape of a hand.

For some reason, as soon as I saw the bruise, a fierce rush of protectiveness flowed through me, even though I had only known the child for about two, maybe three minutes. I wanted to eviscerate and dismember whoever dared to lay a hand on someone so clearly innocent, who had damaged something so obviously undeserving of such treatment. I raised my hand and placed it gently down on his head, ignoring the flinch that resulted.

"здороваться, little one."

"Straz-vee-cheh?" the little ghost's brow wrinkled in concentration as he tried to pronounce the foreign word.

"Almost, -st instead of -z and -ch_ee_-eh instead of -cheh."

"Strastveechieh." He looked up at me through his bangs, poison green eyes looking at me hesitantly.

"Good, привидение. You just said hello."

So, not only is he one of the cutest looking kids I've ever seen, he's smart, too. Coolio.

At the simple praise, his face lit up as if someone had just set a fire inside his brain. (AN: What? It's _Bryan_...)

Harte timidly grasped the sleeve of my shirt in one small hand, flicking his gaze from the ground to my face, before guiding me in the direction of the stairs. The fury that had been smothered to ashes by the impromptu Russian lesson was rekindled to a blazing rage when I saw that the little привидение walked with a limp, and had appeared to have been doing so for a long while. Once again, that strange urge to carve out someones eyeballs with a rusty, salt covered spoon flooded through me again.

**~That is your soul, Owner. It tells you not to hurt the child because of what he is~**

I almost jumped out of my skin.

_'E-eh? Falborg?'_

**~Of course it is me. Could it be any other?~** I could almost see the scepticism I heard in his... mental voice.

**~Unless you have other voices in your head...~**

_'Oh, shut up, you feather ball. What do you mean by "what he is"?'_

**~...I cannot tell you.~**

Ah, shit. This was serious... If Falborg could not tell me, then it must be physically impossible to.

_'Is he a danger to my family?'_

**~Not directly. There is someone who shall come, though. Do **_**not**_** trust the Grandfather, for he is lies. The Snakes and the Bat are your allies, as is the dragon's Father. Be wary of the one in control of our kin, Bryan. Do not trust him!~**

_'Falborg? What do you mean? Falborg?'_

No answer.

Damn it. I _had_ to get the freaking prophet.

"B-bryan? We are h-here."

I snapped myself out of my pity party to look around the room. It was... bare. My main issue with it was how _plain_ it was. Back home, my room was small, maybe a little bigger than this, (something Kai and Tala never understood, what with some of the bathrooms easily doubling my room in size) but it was painted, and pictures and sketches covered the walls.

Here, the walls were an odd, off-white colour and completely bare of any decoration. There was a small twin bed on one side of the room and an equally small desk in the corner. The bed and the desk both looked new and well put together, so no worries there, but... the _emptiness_... reminded me...

"I-i put th-the bed and the d-d-desk together."

The statement was quiet, just like everything else about this child, but filled with well hidden pride.

"They are the only things I like."

The statement was entirely true.

"Thank you."

Harte's hand slowly slipped from my sleeve to my hand. When I glanced up, he was looking at me hesitantly, almost as if he were waiting for me to smack him. Rage burned in my gut again, but instead of giving in to it, I smirked at him encouragingly, then swept him up into the air and onto my shoulder. I laughed at the squeak he let out, resting my hand reassuringly against his back, preventing him from falling.

"спасибо, привидение. For showing me to my room, and for putting together the only two parts I like about it."

His hands clenched on my shoulder, almost painfully tight, before loosening.

"S-spie-see-bah?"

I laughed again.

"Close enough. It means 'Thank you'."

His hands clenched on my shoulder again.

"c-спасибо, Bryan. For being kind."

And I knew.

Screw freaking relatives, ominous prophecies, and unknown species.

I am _never_ letting this kid get hurt again.


	4. TEH FOURTH CHAPPEH!

My cousin was coming today.

That small fact was enough to make me crazily happy, even though the day started out the same as always, with Aunt Petunia (more like Aunt Nettle) pounding on my door and screeching as if the end of days was coming and my cupboard was the last refuge on earth.

"Boy? Boy! Get up and make my Duddersbreakfast! And don't even think about stealing any for yourself, or Vernon will deal with you!"

'I'm going to steal food from Dudders. I'm going to steal food from Dudders. I'm going to steal food from Dudders.'

Weed.

I shuddered at the mention of my Uncle, despite my internal jesting. Ugly, fat brute of a man, he was, bearing more resemblance to a whale or a walrus than a human. Oddly enough, it seems as if all my "family" members are comparable to animals. Aunt Weed was a horse, "Diddums" could have passed for a hog in his younger days, though now he looked more along the lines of an overweight pot-bellied pig (No offence to the pig), and my Uncle was a whale. With me being a mouse, we could be a full-on human petting zoo. I wonder... would my cousin be the same?

As I was musing,I carefully tucked my wings flat against my back and threw a shirt over them, making sure they were hidden from view and hurried towards the kitchen,where I started to prepare the basic breakfast for the Dursley household, i.e: About two pounds of bacon, three of eggs, ten sausage links, six pieces of heavily buttered and jammed toast, whatever the hell else they wanted, and a bowl of fresh fruit for the Weed. And that's just breakfast... Hopefully, the new addition to the family wouldn't eat very much...

Serving them was even harder than making the food itself. The plates probably weighed at least a third of my own weight, and the table came up to my shoulders. When I was done, I stood in a corner, waiting for their food muffled demands of "More, boy!" or "Fill my cup, idiot!", playing the servant. I hated this. It was totally degrading, making me serve them, but I was too... afraid to do anything about it. After breakfast (of which I had not partaken in) I was presented with a list of chores that basically equaled up to "Clean the entire house."

"My nephew is coming today, boy, and I want this house spotless! "I want to make a good first impression, you hear? Well?"

I really don't know why they ask me that..._ 'You hear?'_ I am not deaf, you know! I _can_ hear you...

"Y-yes, ma'am. I w-will begin."

And with that, my day began.

After finishing the breakfast dishes, sweeping and mopping the floors, vacuuming, washing all the windows, and constantly picking up after Dudders, I started lunch. Thank GAWD today was a week day. I don't think I could have made lunch for all three of them... Making lunch was basically the same as making breakfast, except there wasn't as much food to make. That was offset by the fact that the hard labour and cleaning supplies had stirred up my ever-present cough. I let out a string of wet, hacking coughs, groaning quietly to myself when I noticed the bright red blood spattered all over my hands. This Sucked with a capital S...

Someone knocked on the door and, since I was currently up to my elbows in soapy water, Dudley answered it. I practically felt sorry for whoever was out there. Dudley was probably one of the rudest people I know... though, since the only people I know happen to be my family and my cousin's friends, I really didn't have anything to go off of...

"Whatdiya want?"

I winced. I couldn't hear what the person said back, but I did hear Diddums harpy shriek...

"MAAAAAMMM! SOME WEIRDO'S AT THE DOOR!"

Oh dear... I_ really _don't think anybody would be happy with_ that_ announcement...

"Who is it, Diddydums?"

Gag me... Once again, I couldn't hear the other's whole response over the running water, but I did hear the words Kuznetsov, letter, and placement. A rush of excitement flowed through me. This was _my_ cousin. Technically, he wasn't even related to Aunt Weed or Dudley, since he was my Mother's brother...

"Oh. Yes. Come in. Stay. I'll go fetch Vernon- your... uncle."

I don't think he appreciates being spoken to like a dog, Nettle-Witch... I would go and introduce myself, but not only would that get me punished, I was afraid of what he'd think. I... didn't want him to think of me like the Dursleys do... a freak, a burden, a _thing _that should have been drowned at birth... although, if you think about it, I kind of am a thing...

"This is your uncle Vernon."

No duh... who else do you know that looks like a whale...

"It is... a pleasure to meet you, sir."

He really doesn't sound to happy to be here... He has a nice voice, with a thick European accent, German or Russian... Oh, what does he look like? I want to know!

"You're Bryan, eh, boy?"

So... his name is Bryan Kuznetsov?

"That is my name."

The accent was definitely Russian. He sounds a lot like the old librarian...

"This is my son,_ Dudley _Dursley. I'm sure you boys'll get along fine."

I hoped they wouldn't. Them getting along fine meant Dudders having a much older and stronger boy to help beat me up...

"Dudders, come over here and greet your cousin."

"But maaaaammmmm!" he whined, "I don't wanna!"

"Ok, duddy-dear, you don't do anything you don't want to."

I sighed. Of course, if _Duddy_ dear didn't want to do it...

"Mrs. Dursley?"

"Yes?"

"I would like to rest. The plane ride from Russia to England is very long..."

I would think so... Kind of rude of Aunt Weed, now that I think about it...

"Ah, yes , of course! Boy! Come here, NOW!"

YES! I get to see what he looks like!

I placed the last dish on the drying rack and hurried into the room. I tried to be noisy, but when I coughed roughly into my hand and noticed the way he tensed, I assumed I had startled hm... oops...

"Y-yes, ma'am?"

_Always address Aunt Petunia first. She is a lady and deserves to be treated as such._ Rule number two in the Dursley Household...

"Lead Bryan to his room, then finish your chores."

No, I think I'll just not finish them. I mean, whats the worst you can do, kill me? Bryan turned around and glanced from side to side, obviously looking for whomever was supposed to take him to his room. I really didn't think I was that short...

"Yees, m-ma'am. T-this way, Mr. K-k-kusnetsov."

_Always be polite. Anyone you meet is your better, and they are to be treated as such._ Heh. Stupid rules...

"Call me Bryan, kid. What is your name?"

"...Harte." I said. Oh... what in the world possessed me to give out my real name? My uncle will be so mad...

Well, at least I get to see what he looks like before I die.

I took a moment to study him. My first thought was literally, 'OHMYGODPIIIINNNKKKK'. Seriously. His hair is pink. Well, not really pink, more like a lavender-y grayish colour, but still... PINK. He was tall... maybe somewhere around 5 10? His eyes were green, like mine... just... not as bright. I could feel his shock when he looked at me. I suppose he was expecting someone bigger. I _am_ kind of small for my age... His eyes widened. Oh. He probably noticed the bruise on my cheek... the one that I got yesterday, for... well... I don't really remember... All the sudden, the fiercest wave of protectiveness and anger washed over me. I almost flinched with the strength of it. The anger was directed at my relatives, while the protectiveness was directed at me...

He raised his hand. My automatic respose was to flinch away, but he just rested it on my head.

"здороваться, little one."

Well. That is an odd word...

"Straz-vee-cheh?" I said, hoping to god I hadn't mangled it too badly

"Almost, -st instead of -z and -ch_ee_-eh instead of -cheh."

"Strastveechieh." I looked up at him through my bangs, expecting a sharp reprimand or a smack.

After all, freaks aren't supposed to look their betters in the eyes.

"Good, привидение. You just said hello."

Praise? That was new...

I grasped the hem of his shirtsleeve, glancing over and sensing to see if I had overstepped my bounds. Not getting anything, whether it be from facial features or emothins, I led him in the direction of the stairs. Fury burst from him like a bullet from a gun, along with a rather out of place image of a rusty spoon? but oddly, the anger wasn't directed at me... It was directed at my relatives... He must have noticed my limp. Honestly, I'm so used to it that_ I_ barely even notice it anymore... But why was he angry at them?

Another wave of emotion, separate from Bryan's, began to emerge. It almost seemed to be coming from hs bag... But unless he could fit people inside his bag, that shouldn't be possible... Once again, odd, disjointed images appeared in my mind. A snake, a bat, and a dragon together with a misty, superimposed image of what I assumed to be a person crowded into my head. My cousin was turning out to be rather odd...

"B-bryan?" I said, "W-we're here..." Damn timidity.

He looked around the room, and there was a feeling of loss, almost emptiness, along with a rather large helping of dislike.

"I-i put th-the bed and the d-d-desk toghether." I blurted, trying to defend all my hard work.

"They are the only things I like."

Wow...

"Thank you."

Throwing my self preservation out the window, I slipped my hand from his sleeve into his own hand, sensing nervously. Anger filled the room, but it was directed at my relatives again. I don't understand him... He smirked at me than spun me around and lifted me up onto his shoulder. Oh god, I _am_ that small... Sitting up, my entire body could fit on one of his shoulders...

He started to laugh at the rather undignified noise I let out, one of his hands resting on my back, presumably to keep me from falling.

"спасибо, привидение. For showing me to my room, and for putting together the only two parts I like about it."

My hands squeezed his shoulder. All I could sense from him was honesty and affection. Instead of confusing myself, I decided to try out that weird word... Kinda sounds like spicy-bun without the -n.

"S-spie-see-bah?"

Oh, I probably messed it up... he's laughing at me again...

"Close enough. It means 'Thank you'."

My hands squeezed his shoulder again. _Why?_ Why was he being so...

"c-спасибо, Bryan. For being kind."

Even If I didn't know why, i knew that I could trust him, and trust him I would.


	5. Umm fifth? maybe?

Wow, I'm sorry this chapter sucks so much.

Keep in mind: Bryan has a relly thick russian accent.

"Then I ask you a different question." Sounds like this, pronounciation wise.

"Zhen Ai osk yoo eh deeferent kooesteeon."

Yes, you may laugh at him.

* * *

Ok. Problem number one: When dealing with mini-people, awkward silences are common.

Problem number two : How do I break said awkward silence without sounding like an idiot?

"I d-do not know you."

Problem number two : Solved by Mini-person.

"I don't know you, either..."

Oh great. Another awkward silence.

"I...I w-would like t-to know you..."

P#2: Solved. Again.

"How about a game, then?"

I lifted him off my shoulder, sat down on the bed, and plopped him down on my lap, ignoring his sudden stiffness.

"You can ask me a question. For every question I answer truthfully, you have to answer a question of mine truthfully. Ok?"

Harte cotemplated the offer, still stiff. He looked at me warily.

"W-what if I d-do not wish t-to answer?"

It kinda hurts that a little kid thinks he can't trust anyone.

"Then I ask you a different question. Agreeable?"

He slowly relaxed.

"Yes... W-what is your f-favourite... colour?"

"Hmm... I'd have to say... blue."

Like Tala's eyes... Damn! I miss him...

"What's yours?"

"G... Silver and black... Y-your favourite animal?"

"Falcon, yours?"

**~I would hope so, Owner. If not, I'd be offended!~**

_'Oh be quiet, featherball'_

"Snakes."

"One of my friends, Ian, he likes snakes as well. Tala won't let him get one, though."

He squirmed around to face me.

"D-do you... have m-many friends?"

... How do you explain to a five? year old, albeit a really smart five year old with an extended vocabulary, that you really don't have very many friends because a microchip that was implanted in your brain made you wanna kill people?

"I've got a couple.. Ian, Spencer, Tala," though he wasn't really a_ friend_, per say, but once again how do you explain...? "...Kai, and Rei."

Surprisingly. It turns out that Rei knew something a little odd was going on at the tournament, and after he figured out about the 'chip and the brainwashing, he really didn't hold anything against me. After that, we figured out that we had a lot in common, and Poof! we were friends. It still drives Kai and Tala crazy that three days produced one of the most bizarre friendships known to man...

"What about you? Tell me about your friends."

He stiffened up again and cast his eyes downward.

"I... d-do not have any... Dudley s-scares them away. P-plus...I c-can not really d-do anything, w-with my leg..."

That reminds me... I need to talk to those... relatives... of mine and see why they're not getting proper medical care for the kid. Even if his leg wasn't healable, then at least something for that cough. Harte had been coughing the entire conversation, and it didn't sound good. It kinda reminded me of the time when Ian had double pnemonia and coughed so much that the lining of his throat tore... Thaaat was gross. (1)

"Are th-they nice?"

"Nice? Umm..."

Visions of a pink haired Tala chasing Ian around the house with a steak knife, screaming about how 'he was gonna castrate him' flooded into my mind...

"For the most part. I mean, Tala can get pissy if you screw with his hair, but other that that, they're pretty nice. "

"His h-hair?"

I grinned.

"Ian replaced his shampoo with pink hair dye... well, it was actually white hair dye, but Tala has red hair, so... Anyways, after Tala was done chasing Ian around the house, he locked himself in his room untill his 'precious hair' went back to normal. By the way, how old _are_ you?

It was a valid question. I mean, the child had the body of a for or five year old and the vocabulary of a highschooler...

"I a-am seven."

E-eh? S-seven?

"W-what do y-you do? F-for fun, th-that is..."

My area of expertise!

"We play a game called Beyblade. Haven't you heard of it?" I asked when all the name brought was a confused glance

"Once o-or t-t-twice..."

I gasped. How could someone not know about beyblade? It's like... like... The Olympics! Or the Soviet Union! Everyone's heard of it!

"It's a game where you launch a top like thing, called a beyblade, into a circular arena. Whichever top stops spinning first loses."

"I-is that w-what is i-in your p-pocket?"

Oh. Well, that was unexpected. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my 'blade, holding it out for him to see.

"Um, yeah. How did you know it was in my pocket?"

"I did. A-are all... b-beyblades? alive?"

A-alive? What? OH, the bitbeast... how could he know that? Almost every person on the planet was under the assumption that my and the rest of the demolition boys' bit beasts had been destroyed... Plus, he dodged around my question. Dammit, I can't call him out on it 'cause, technically, he did answer...

"Not all of them. Some of them have something called a bit beast. It's kind of like a spirit that's connected to the blade. This spirit's name is Falborg. He's a very grumpy old falcon who talks in riddles and-"

The blade flashed angrily, heating up to a level that was almost painful.

**~You would do well to introduce me to the little one, Owner.~**

_'Aww, are you jealous, Falborg?'_

**~Just let me out you fool.~**

_'Fine... for St. Peter's sake, keep your feathers on..._

I placed one of my fingers against the picture on the bit chip and fed it some energy. A thin, yellow mist began floating above my hand, slowly solidifying into the form of a large white falcon with yellow and red armour. Falborg turned to Harte and bowed, majestic head dipping low.

"**~Hello, little one.~**"

Harte's eyes widened. Upon sighting the bit beast, he wriggled his way out of my lax hold and bowed low, upper body parallel to the floor in an extremely formal japanese bow. Where the hell did he learn that? We're in the middle of London, and I doubt any of these... people... are Japanese... The only reason I know what it is is because Kai beat proper Japanese etiquette into our heads...

"Spirit."

Falborg looked at him and I could feel approval flooding our link.

"**~You may rise, little one. Ah, this old spirit enjoys meeting someone who knows the proper etiquette,~"** the falcon stated, staring at me the whole sentence, **"I'm afraid my human is just a poor, uncouth street rat! Oh, woe... why couldn't I have Suzaku's human? He treats her like a princess, always polishing and shining and flattering and polishing... look at my feathers! They're filthy! Oh, it's just not fair...**"

"Oh shut up, you overgrown chicken."

I looked over at the kid.

"Eh, for all his whining, he really does like me. I think."

Harte's eyes were clenched shut and his shoulders were shaking.

"You be alright?"

He let out a small giggle and looked up at me.

"I-it is very rude t-t-to laugh at spirits, e-especially powerful ones, b-but..."

Harte burst out laughing.

"Y-you two are just t-t-to funny!"

I grinned at him. It was nice to see him laugh. The whole... umm... twenty? thirty? minutes I'd known him, he'd been way to serious. Even Ian wasn't that serious, and he lived in the abbey for nigh on seven years.

"BOY!"

Harte (and, sadly, me) jumped at the unearthly shriek.

"STOP LAZING! GET DOWN HERE AND DO THE DISHES! NOW!"

Harte's face went from happy to blank in a millisecond.

"I-i ap-p-pologize. I n-need to go. M-maybe... maybe we c-can talk? L-later?"

His expression made may heart break. His eyes were downcast and he honestly looked like he was expecting me to say no.

"Of course! I would like that!"

He let out a small smile, barely a twitch of the lips,and vanished out the door.


	6. The one you've all not killed me for?

I hurried my way out of the room and down the stairs, stopping abruptly in front of Aunt Petunia.

"Clean the kitchen, boy. I'll be in the living room, talking with my nephew, so I don't want to hear a single word out of you. If I do..." she trailed off, leaving an open ended threat that most likely had something to do with my uncle hanging from the end of the sentence.

I nodded, careful to keep my eyes averted, and moved into the kitchen. I collected the dishes from Dudley's mid afternoon snacks and placed them in the sink before putting the already clean dishes away.

"Bryan, dear-" I grinned, feeling the metaphorical wave of disgust from my cousin- my cousin!- at being called _dear_, of all things, "- Come down here. We need to talk about what you're going to do for school. It starts next week, you know."

It did start next week...

School was... sort of a mixed blessing. On one hand, the library was always available for use and Dudley and I were always in different classes. On the other hand, most of the teachers were convinced that I was a delinquent, I was forced to score worse on tests than Dudley, and, well, the playground that all the students go to for recess has a pond next to it and is notorious for it's large fire ant hills. (Are there fire ants in England...?)

The water from the sink drowned out Bryan's reply, but I could still hear my aunt's voice. Judging from her tone and the emotions coming from both of them, he really didn't want to go...

"Any self respecting relative of mine is going to get a proper education!"

Aunt Nettle was getting angry, which was a bad thing. A _really_ bad thing.

I dropped a metal cup into the sink, just loud enough to make a sound. Knowing her, she'd forget all about the argument she had just been having and focus on complaining about him.

"Wh... as... at...?"

"God awful... BOY! If you make one more noise, there will be hell to pay!"

I flinched back, despite the fact that we were separated by an entire room's worth of space. Even though Aunt Petunia left most of the disciplining to Uncle Vernon, she could still inflict a lot of pain if she wanted too...

Aunt Petunia's loud voice crashed through the sound of rushing water once again.

"That brat, entirely too much trouble, if you ask me. Always starting things..."

I held my breath, trying desperatly to hear Bryan's answer, but failing.

"We disipline him when he needs it, and God knows he needs it all the time... He's always causing trouble! He lies, he steals, he cheats on tests at school, why, just the other day he shoved my poor baby down on the ground and stole his candy bar!"

I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping that he wouldn't believe her.

"Medical...? For his leg? There's nothing wrong with it, he just fakes it for attention. That cough, too. So much trouble..."

I coughed. Sadly, I didn't fake it for attention. I wish I did, because it would be a whole lot easier around here if cleaning supplies didn't make me cough up blood. I moved the next stack of dishes closer and began scrubbing them down, listening in on their conversation all the while.

"He's such a brat! He constantly disrespects me and his uncle, and he never obeys. We have such a hard time dealing with him... It's only out of the kindness of our hearts that we don't dump the boy in some orphanage somewhere."

My hands shook as I conciously reined in my anger. It would definitly be a bad thing if dishes started exploding. Yesss, a bad thing indeed...

Honestly, I think I would rather be in an orphanage. At least there I had a chance at a normal life... Of course, if the caretakers or any foster families I get stuck with happen to figure out about my weird abilities, which, by the way, I'm pretty sure are not normal, I'd probably get sent to an underground government facility and be tested on for the rest of my life.

Bryan had come pretty close a while ago, when I had asked about the living top- the Beyblade? He was shocked that I had known it was alive. I could feel it.

I'm... worried. What if... he finds out, and he becomes just like my relatives? What if he turns me over to the government? What if he... he thought I was a freak and deserved everything I got and left me here all by my self?

I coughed roughly into my hand, sombered by the feeling of blood splattering out of my mouth. I couldn't afford to panic. Panic only lead to attacks, attacks lead to being unable to complete my workload, and being unable to complete my workload led to beatings, which, in turn, led to more panic and so on.

Bryan would find out eventually, that was a fact. Panicking about what would happen then was pointless, because it was inevitable. For all I know, he could think it's awesome. Of course, he could sell me to a circus, but I'm working on not panicking right now, so that thought isn't really helpful...

"Yen for your thoughts, little one?"

I turned and bowed, having felt the prescence of the snake earlier.

"J-just... attempting n-not t-t-to p-panic, Lord Shinja."

The decent sized reptile, scales still warm from the sunshine and glowing from the energy inside of him, slithered in through the window and curled around my arm.

"Otousan. Call me outousan. It has something to do with your cousin, does it not? I know you too well, yuurei. You are my aiji, my beloved child. you cannot hide your feelings from me."

I sighed. Shinja was right. He had been with me as long as I could remember, teaching me, protecting me... He had been the one to teach me how to speak, to read, and to control my powers and emotions. Being a sort of shaman for his species, he was much older and wiser than any that I have ever met. He had also taught me some other things, like proper spirit etiquette, as well as the Japanese language and etiquette.

Speaking of which...

"S-said cousin has a high spirit with him, Ot-tousan. I-i met him earlier today. He has t-t-taken to calling himself F-falborg."

Shinja's eyes widened.

"T-tondemonai..."

"Ot-tousan?"

My snake-father-thing grinned.

"Falborg and I know each other very well. In fact, we happened to be very good friends when he was alive. It is... nice to know he is still on this plane of existence."

I looked at him.

"Y-you were f-friends with a g-giant b-bird?"

The look on Shinja's face nearly made me burst out laughing.

"He got stuck in lateral transformation? _Really?_"

Shinja scratched the back of his head with his tail.

"Well, at least he cannot laugh at me anymore."

I just shook my head at my crazy... whatever you would call him. I'm so used to being confused by now that I don't even ask questions anymore...

"A very long time ago, I was practicing transformation magic with Falborg. I was trapped in lateral tranformation- basically, in Lamia form. Falborg would not let me hear the end of it..." Shinja said in explanation.

I nodded.

"What has you so worried, yuurei?"

I winced.

"Your attempt at sidetracking me was impressive, but I will not forget something that has you so troubled."

I sighed.

"I... I am afraid, O-otousan. Of w-what will h-happen when he d-discovers my powers..."

Shinja had tried to explain to me what I was, but all the talk of magic and spells, wizards and witches, had made my head hurt.

Accordig to him, I was unusual even for a wizard- empathy and my control over my 'accidental' magic was very rare and just another thing to separate me from ever having a remotely normal existance.

"If Falborg has aligned himself to your cousin, then you have nothing to fear from him, yuurei. You will be safe with him. He is a better judge of character than any I have ever known."

"Why, thank you!"

Shinja and I both jumped halfway out of our skins. I whirled around, coming face to face with none other that Bryan and Falborg.

"F-Falborg?"

"Nice to see you, Shinja. It has been a long time, hasn't it?"

* * *

Ok, sorry about the time it took me to upload this pathetically short chapter, but my computer died. Literally. 24,000 word worth of fanfiction, down the drain. Then, I had to wait almost a month to get a new hard drive, then, Windows wouldn't download on my computer, so I had to use Linux, _then_, OpenOffice wouldn't work, so I had to use AbiWord, _then, _I figured out that AbiWord isn't compatible with FF, so I had to do this roundabout e mail thingy to even get the chapter up in the first place, and finally, I've had to do all this _completely banned from FanFiction._ Yeah. No kidding, this site is on my parent's shit list. Sorry. But I addded new plot twists? (Please don't kill meee...)


	7. Teh Seventh Chappeh teh Rabbit

I sat on the bed in the middle of the bare, depressing room and stared at the wall. The poor kid...

He was obviously abused, no question about it. The flinches, the stuttering, the fact that two very visible and probably painful health problems were being ignored... All I need is proof. To get some pictures, record some conversations, and have the little ghost himself admit it. That would be the hard part.

"Bryan, dear-" I cringed, disgust warring with contempt. How _dare_ she call me dear, of all things?

"- Come down here. We need to talk about what you're going to do for school. It starts next week, you know."

I sighed and made my way downstairs, mentally preparing myself for a full out battle. Stupid lady. All four years of high school credits were sitting happily in some crowded, usless government office somwhere.

"Ma'am," I replied when I stood in front of her, barely preventing myself from gagging at the sight of he grotesquly fat son stuffing himself even more on the ugly looking couch, "I am not going to school. One, it would be relativly inconvenient for the both of us, since I'm only required to stay here for two weeks-" Oh lord, two weeks without Tala- "And two, I already have-"

"Any self respecting relative of mine is going to get a proper education!"

I grimaced, about to press my case, when I heard somthing clatter in the next room over.

"What was that?"

The witchy woman's face contorted with anger.

"God awful... BOY! If you make one more noise, there will be hell to pay!"

I barely restrained myself from wrapping my hands around her pathetically skinny neck and snapping it. I may have done a lot- and I mean a lot- of crappy, conciouse killing things, but I have never ever hit, honest to god threatened, or even punished a little kid. I mean, Ian might get incredibly annoying at times, and I had chased him aroud screaming about how I was gonna kill him, but I never even thought of actually hurting him.

"That brat, entirely too much trouble, if you ask me. Always starting things..."

I personally believed that to be complete and utter bullshit, but kept my comments to myself. For now.

"We disipline him when he needs it, and God knows he needs it all the time... He's always causing trouble! He lies, he steals, he cheats on tests at school, why, just the other day he shoved my poor baby down on the ground and stole his candy bar!"

My teeth, clenched tight in anger, bit through my tounge. The taste of blood was, thankfully, enough to distract me from my increasingly violent fantasies involving this lady and several very painful methods of tourture. One of which included a spork. Yep, sporks were wonderful inventions...

"Have you ever thought that the pain in his leg is making him tetchy? It looks like it needs madical care. He might be less... agressive if that gets taken care of."

I managed to come off as understanding but slightly concerned instead of the angry, raging, homicidal maniac (Haha JtHM...) that I felt. And Rei said I couldn't act...

"Medical...? For his leg? There's nothing wrong with it, he just fakes it for attention. That cough, too. So much trouble..."

I seriously doubt anyone can fake coughing up blood, biotch.

"He's such a brat! He constantly disrespects me and his uncle, and he never obeys. We have such a hard time dealing with him... It's only out of the kindness of our hearts that we don't dump the boy in some orphanage somewhere."

I think he would prefer it.

I nodded, pretending to care. Right now, what I needed to work on was getting the kid to trust me. It may seemlike he already trusts me, but it was very unlikely that he actually did. Dealing with Ian, the only truly abused member of our little team, had taught me that much, at least.

Another was to get the relatives to sign the ghost over to me. It may not seem like an issue, but they may not be willing to give up the government stipend and free labour service, no matter how much they hate him.

I clenched the cold, comforting steel of my 'blade, feeling it heat up in response. All of this needed to get done fast. There was no way that kid was gonna live past the age of nine if I left him here.

**~Master.~**

'_Fal? Whats up?'_

**The young one is in contact with a very powerful spirit-master.~**

'_Powerful as in 'friendly' or powerful as in 'Oh shit we're screwed'?_**'**

The falcon snorted.

**~I believe it is the first one.~**

'_Sould we go check on him anyway?_**'**

**~You're just looking for an exuse to go see him again, aren't you?~**

I lightly flicked the bit-chip in protest, but admitted it anyway

'_I... don't like it when I can't see him._'

**~Then we should go, should we not? By the way, that particularly unpleasant woman has been talking to you this entire time...~**

'_And why should I care...?_**'**

I stood up abruptly and interrupted the woman in the middle of her sentence- something about a tea party tomorrow- and moved towards the kitchen, throwing the exuse about going to get something to drink over my shoulder.

Needless to say, I was suprised when Falborg emerged from his 'blade and settled behind a large snake that seemed to be carrying out a conversation with my cousin, what with the way they were both hissing up a storm.

Then, something that I never expected to happen, did.

The snake started _talikg_. In _English. _

"If Falborg has aligned himself to your cousin, then you have nothing to fear from him, yuurei. You will be safe with him. He is a better judge of character than any I have ever known."

"Why, thank you!"

I grinned at the wide eyed reactions from both the snake and the kid, quickly getting over the fact that the snake was talking in English. After all, if I could stick a spirit infused piece of rock on top of a toy and use that to fight other people who also had spirit-top-things, I could easily accept the fact that snakes could talk. I also realized that the snake had called him yuurei. Ghost.

"F-Falborg?"

The large snake, striped black and brilliant red with odd, almost cross-shaped markings across its body, just about looked ready to have a heart attack.

"Nice to see you, Shinja. It has been a long time, hasn't it?"

"You know him?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, very well. We'd been friends since before my death."

I shook my head in bemusment and grabbed a glass from the sink, cleaning it out and filling it full with fresh water.

"Are you thirsty, привидение?"

The child looked at me oddly.

"Pri... prividanyie?"

I raised an eyebrow. This kid was obviously a lot smarter than his relatives give him credit for.

"Basically. It means ghost."

Harte;s eye twitched and he looked at me, the random spirit dude, then back at me again.

"...Are you attempting to conspire against me?"

I couldn't help it. I just about fell to the floor laughing my butt off.

"Niet- no, привидение, I am not. Your assumption is hilarious, though. Would you like some water?"

I offered the cup to him, previous levity gone.

He looked at it hesitantly, then back up at me, almost as if he was expecting it to be a trick.

"I... Thank you. спасибо."

He took the cup and drank it dry in seconds.

I scooped him into my arms (stifling a chuckle at the suprised squeak he made) and settled him down on the counter, grabbing the nearest dishes and moving them under the stream of hot water. He sat there, eyes wide, looking for all the world as if someone had just slapped him on the face with a fish. A live fish.

I scrubbed at the dishes with a sponge, glancing at him with one eyebrow raised.

"What?"

"I-you-what-eh?"

I laughed at him again.

"What, no one's ever helped you with your chores before?"

He looked away, eyes downcast.

"No."

My own eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What exactly are your chores?"

"I... well..."

"Tell me? Please?"

He brought his eyes up to meet mine, and not for the first time, I felt as though he were searching me for something.

"I... cook breakfast," he began after a while, bringing his knees up to his chest and curling into a protective ball, "Clean up the breakfast dishes, put them away, clean the floors, dust, mop if there is any mud on the floor- which there usually is, because Dudley tracks it in on purpose- clean the living room, game room, Aunt and Uncle's room, all the subsequent bathrooms, mow the lawn, weed the garden, water the plants, make lunch and dinner, clean up said dishes and put them away, and any other odd jobs that need doing."

"And just how much food and water do you get for all this?" I asked, careful to keep my ever rising anger in check.

He shivered.

"I... It depends, really. On whether I get all my chores done or not, but I usually get one small meal a day and one water bottle."

My white-knuckled grip on the glass I was holding almost shattered it.

"There are only four bedrooms in this house, one of which is a guest room and the other three occupied by me and those... wretched creatures. Where do you sleep?"

"...That also depends. Normally, I sleep in the cupbord under the stairs, but if I have been really bad, then they throw me outside and I have to sleep in the shed..."

The fork I had been attempting to put away bent in my hand.

"This will not continue," I said, voice dangerously low.

"From now on, I will help you with your chores. You will also be staying with me in my room. If they attempt to throw you out again, you come to me, and I will take care of it. If they hit you, you come to me, and I will take care of it. If any harm befalls you that they are responsible for, you come to me and I will take care of it."

I placed a finger under his chin and tilted his face up so his eyes met mine.

"What they are doing is wrong, and it will not continue," I whispered.

He just shook his head, tears falling from his eyes.

"It will just get worse," he cried softly, "If you get involved, it will just get worse. When you leave, they will just do everything ten times worse!"

I gently cupped his face in my hands and rubbed our noses together, elicting a small, tarstained giggle from the pathetically small seven year old.

"I'm not going to leave you here. My ffriends Tala and Kai are arranging everything right now. If you wish, when I leave I will take you with me."

"...Really?"

The hope in his voice was heartbreaking. he had honestly expected to be left behind...

"Truly, привидение."

He threw his arms around my neck and hugged me tightly, small shoulders shaking with sobs.

"Thank you thank youthankyouthankyou!"

I wrapped my arms around him, noting absently the rather odd shape of his back, and picked him up, cerrying him from the room.

"Well,, little one, I am going to talk to your aunt. Do you want me to drop you off at my room?"

He shook his head, arms squeezing tighter.

"No... Please don't leave me..."

"Alright. Be prepared for a lot of yelling, though."

I squared my shoulders and opened the door into the living room, mentally preparing myself for the argument that was to come.

For the argument that I definitly was not allowed to lose.


	8. BOOMHEADSHOTTEH NUMBAH 8 IS HEEA!

I slammed the door open with enough force to make a dent in the opposite wall.

"Mrs. Dursley," I said, using every last bit of self restraint in my body not to throttle her, "I believr we have some things to discuss."

"What is going on? What are you doing with... it?"

Harte whimpered softly and pressed himself closer to me, trembling.

"She's very very angry," he whispered to himself, "And angry Aunt Petunia is a very very bad thing..."

Sadly enough, this was the first time I had heard him sound like a seven year old child.

"SIT!" I barked.

She sat.

"I am going to be putting a few rules in place for the remaider of my stay here."

"You-you- have NO RIGHT-"

"SILENCE!"

I was never more happy for my scary glare and intimidating russian accent. I swear, I almost made the woman piss her pants.

"You are the one who has no right," I continued, voice pitched to that eerily soft tone that makes even Ian sit still and listen.

"From now on, Harte will stay in my room with me. I will help him with his chores. You will feed him more than once a day. If you hurt him, I will hurt you twice as much. When I leave, you /will/ sign custody over to me. Do. You. Understand."

The stupid weed glared at me hatefully.

"Vernon will not be happy about this! The nerve you have, threatening me in my own home-"

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND!"

Harte gasped and flinched.

"Shh, ghost, I am not angry at you. You have no need to be afraid of me... shhh..."

I hugged him tightly.

"I know," he answered back quitely, "You are angry at her, and my cousin, and my uncle, and yourself... Why are you angry at yourself...?"

"That is a question for another time, привидение."

The woman was sniveling on the ugly-couch, terrified. I grinned, the scary, unhinged looking grin that would probably terrify her even more.

"Harte and I are going to go upstairs. He needs to rest. You will make you, your family, and us dinner tonight."

She nodded and I escaped to my room.

I sat down on the small bed in the equally small room and sighed. So much had happened in one day...

Had it really only been one day?

I sighed and hugged the too-smal child closer.

"How do you feel about coming to live with my friends and I?"

"I... I think I would like it very much..."

"Good."

I grinned again, a normal, happy looking one this time, and ruffled his hair.

"'Causse leaving you here is definitly out of the question."

"You... you care. About me. You... honestly, truly care about me... Why?"

I flinched at the sincere disbelief in his voice.

I set him down on the bed and knelt in front of him, looking him sraight in the eye.

"I care for many different reasons. I care because you're my cousin. I care because you're just a little kid, and no little kid should /ever/ have to deal with something like this. I care because you remind me of someone I know. I care because I like the little bit of you I have gotten to know. I... I just care, Harte."

"I do not understand..."

He shook his head from side to side, anger, sadness and confusion battling away in his eyes.

"You are telling the truth, I know it, I can feel it, but it makes no sense! No one cares! No one ever has..."

"I do not understand..." he whispered quietly, tears forming.

I pulled him back into my arms and held him close while he cried.

No matter how mature he may seem, he was still barely seven, and with all that had gone on in one day, I wasn't suprised he had brocken down. In fact, I was more suprised he hand't broken sooner.

I just held him close, cradled him as he cried himself to sleep and followed him soon after.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ooh, something new!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tala paced back in forth, cell phone in hand. Bry had promised he'd call today and it was already nine o' clock...

"Tala, you're wearing holes in my expensive carpet."

The red head just glared at the one who had intruded on his imminent panic attack.

"Sit. You ruining my floor will not make him call, you know that."

Tala sighed and plopped down on the couch next to the blue hared boy.

"I... I know, Kai, but he said he'd call and I'm just..."

"You're worried."

"Of course I am!"

He shot up from his position on the couch and paced again, arms waving about wildly.

"We send him off to god-knows-where-"

"#4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England, Europe, Eatern Hemisphere, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy-"

"Ok, ok, dear God I get it, Kai!"

The other smiled.

"He's fine. We'll be able to see him in a couple of days, anyway. Just calm down, Tala, I'm sure he's-"

The phone rang.

I woke up a couple of hours later to a hersh pounding on the door.

Setting Harte down gently on the bed, I stood and flung open the door, glaring at the intellegence-deprived walrus standing outside my room.

"You're going to wake him up," I growled harshly, inwardly laughing as his face blanched.

"T-the little runt needs to wake up anyway! It-"

Any and all restraints and inhibitions fell away, and I was glad the emotion control chip was the only thing we could get rid of.

Using my genetically enhanced strenth and speed, I lifted the man up and pinned him to the wall, so angry it seemed as if I would burst.

"If. You EVER," I puncuated the last word with a harsh shake, "Call him an IT," another shake, "Again. I. Will. KILL YOU!"

I threw him to the ground and loomed over him, eyes glowing eerily.

Thank God for genetic modification and weird chemicals.

"Do. You. UNDERSTAND!"

He jumped and cowered spectacularly.

"Just incase your wife did not make this clear to you, let mee reiterate. You will not hurt him. He will bee fed normally. I will take on most of his chores, and when I leave, you WILL sign custody over to me. Got it?"

He nodded, completely cowed. Glowy eyes, sharper than normal teeth, and a scary russian accent are wonderful things to terrify with.

"Good. I will be waiting in my room for our dinner, which, as I alerted your wife, will be prepared by her tonight."

I spun on my heel and shut the door behind me, pulling out my cellphone as I passed my bag.

Glancing at the clock, I noticed it was only six... With Vladimir only three hours ahead of london, it shouldn't be too late... I'm just glad their flight was based there instead of Providiniya. The huge time difference would have made it almost impossible to talk to Tala...

I dialed in the familiar number and smiled when the first think I heard was Tala yelling at me for not calling sooner.

"So?"

"...So...?"

"Is he cute? Nice? Does he hate you? C' mon, we're all dying for details, here!"

"God, Tala, I love you. You know that, right?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"...Bryan?"

The tentative voice came, tinny through the phone's speakers, but still recognizable.

"What happened? What's wrong?"

I sighed and glanced at the little ghost currently curled up on my bed.

"They... They hurt him, Tal. So much... He's been abused, probably as long as he's been here. They... starve him, give him pages worth of chores, beat him... His bedroom is a cupboard, Tal... Right now, it's all I can do not to kill them. I want to so bad... I want them to pay! I want to rip their stomachs open with a damn spork and watch them die, and laugh at them... I'm... I'm scared, Tala."

"It- It'll be ok, Bry, you'll see. Everything's gonna be fine. Just two weeks, and then you can bring him home. Remember that. Every time you want to kill them, remember that, ok?"

I know I scared him. I... kind of scared myself. I thought those feelings were done with, after... after the Abbey...

"He's tiny," I whispered into the phone, "So tiny that I thought the records were wrong. He looks more like a four year old than a seven year old... He's got real pretty green eyes, though. You'll love them."

I could just hear the gears ticking in Tala's head...

"What colour's his hair?"

"Black. Pitch black, not jusst dark brown. It's long too, almost all the way down his back."

"Oh, now I just wanna hug him!"

I laughed.

"He'll probably enjoy that... He... he clings to any sort of affectionate gesture,, but doesn't ask for it. He acts like hugs are new and wonderful things that are going to get stolen away from him... It makes me sad. It reminds me of Ian, almost... Exept worse."

"Ian will just have to help him, then. Suprise suprise, we'll be out there in a few days!"

"Good. I think I need a hug."

"And I'll be sure to give you one..."

I could practically hear his leer. I coughed, face red.

"Uh, Tala? Not that I don't enjoy where this is going, but-"

There was a sharp rap to the door.

"I have to go, Lover."

"We'll see you soon, Bry. Das Vidaniet."

"Das Vidaniet, Lover."


	9. I'm running out of stupid titles

I hung up my cellphone and opened the door. No one, just two small plates of food left on the floor. I picked both of them up and went back inside the tiny room.

I set the plates down on the small desk and moves over to the bed.

"Harte?"

I gently shook a too-thin shoulder.

"C'mon, привидение, dinner time..."

He sat up with a small yawn, rubbing at his eyes with the stereotypical 'awww, so cute!' gesture.

Stereotypes are so adorable...

I handed him a plate of food and sat next to him on the bed.

"So. I'm going to be here for two weeks. Tala and the others are flying over in about two days, so you'll get to meet them soon... hmm... We got a week free. Anything you want to do?"

"M-me?"

I smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Yes, you! I am your slave for a week! Anything you want, whether it be a fun activity or candy or icecream or whatever. Anything."

He looked up at me shyly.

"C-can we go t-to the bookstore?"

"Bookstore?"

HA! Score one for the book peoples! Take that, Tala!

"Sure!"

He smiled.

I'm gonna need to beat the girls... or boys... offa him with a stick when he gets older...

"T-the lunch ladies at school... They give me quarters or a dollar sometimes for helping out during recess. I really need some new books... I have read all of mine so many times over I have lost count!"

He giggled.

Rephrase: Gonna need to beat them off with a friggin' pole. A BIG pole.

I shook my head and grinned at him.

"Tomorrow, we go to the bookstore. But now..."

I gathered him into my arms.

"I have some questions for you, ok? It's very important that you answer truthfully."

He went still, eyes wide.

"Wh-wh-what d-do you w-want t-t-to know"

My own eyes narrowed at the sudden stutter and I rested a hand on his back.

"I just have some questions. You knew your aunt was angry, you knew Falborg was there, you seem to know how I'm feeling at times... And it looked like you were... talking to Falborg's friend. And not in English. Trust me, please? You can tell me, I won't get angry."

He shuddered but nodded.

"P-p-please... do not hate m-me..."

"Never, kiddo. I just want to know what's going on."

"I... a-am what you w-would c-call... an emp-path. I can s-see auras a-and f-feel oth-ther p-people's e-emotions. I-I'm a f-f-freak..." he whispered quietly.

"An empath? Oh wow, you can really read people's emotions?!"

He nodded, still looking terrified.

"Harte, this is... just... just, wow. Wow. And seeing auras... what do they look like?"

I lifted my arm up close to my face, squinting as if by trying hard enough I could see my own aura. I didn't doubt the kid for a second- Rei, the village idiot he was, had thoroughly beaten belief in the unexplainable into all of us.

Plus, after seeing the showoff jump out of a three story building and land on his feet, completely unharmed, auras and empaths weren't all that hard to believe in.

My exaggerated motions had the effect I was going for, though. Harte giggled, relaxing slightly in my arms.

"Sometimes they are really pretty, but sometimes they are ugly, too. There are levels... three," he stopped, looking up at me as though asking for permission to keep talking.

"Go on," I prompted gently, honestly interested.

"There are the base colours- a person's personality- then, a level of more commonly felt emotions- if someone is angry or sad very often, then their second level would show that. The third level is what they are feeling at that very moment. I can only see the first level right now...Shinja is teaching me."

"Shinja?"

"The snake. He is... some sort of shaman, I think. He never actually told me what he was, exactly. He is teaching me how to use my... powers."

I grinned.

"Empathy, huh... Is that why you seem to... trust me so much?"

He nodded, eyes downcast.

"I can tell... I can feel that you will not harm me. Although..." he looked at me oddly, tilting his head to the side, "You do seem to have random bursts of anger connected to the image of a spork..."

I cracked up.

"This is sooo cool."

I paused and looked at the clock.

"But..."

I gathered him into my arms and fell backwards onto the bed.

"Now, it is time for all species to go to bed. G'night, little alien boy..."

He laughed at me.

"I am not an alien! Do you see green skin? I have all my fingers and ears, and I have a nose, too!"

Dude, he just described Zim...

"Fine. G'night, little alternative specied boy."

"Goodnight, little human worm-baby."

I love this kid...

* * *

The next morning dawned way too early. Way too early.

Harte was squirming slightly, trying to disentangle himself from me without waking me up. Which would have worked, if not for the long hair that tickled my nose...

Oh, Unmaker, drag me to the Pit.

I am gonna need a hell of a long time to actually comprehend this... But, seriously? I have an ancient spirit trapped inside a little piece of metal that is attached to a little top, which I use to fight other people on a daily basis.

Odd powers aren't that far out of the realm of normal for me... Sadly.

I groaned at shook my head. Way too early in the damn morning...

"Bryan?"

I glanced over at the deathly adorable small child cuddled up to the blankets left on the bed.

"I... I need to make breakfast. And clean up breakfast, and finish cleaning-"

"Nope."

He stopped, looking at me oddly.

"We..."

I looked at the clock, shivered at the utter wrongness of actually being awake at seven in the morning, and fell back on the bed.

"We are going back to sleep for a good... three hours or more, then we will wake up, get ready, and go to the nearest bookstore."

"Go... back to sleep? Until ten? I... I do not believe I have ever slept that long, ever!"

"It's sacriligious to wake up before ten. It is wrong and immoral and should never happen. Good nig- morning."

Someone started pounding on the door.

"What?! What, for the love of Primus, Loki, Pepito, Jesus, Pete, or whoever the hell else you believe in!?"

Harte giggled off to one side.

"The boy-"

"He has a name, you know!"

"...Harry needs to cook breakfast-"

"Nope. We're going back to sleep now, bye bye."

I believe it is my job to piss off figures of authority, and it is something I do very well...

* * *

After about three more hours of wonderful sleep, Harte convinced me that it was time to wake up.

He was really the cutest thing I'd ever seen, bouncing around like the energizer bunny on crack, flitting this way and that trying to get me ready as fast as possible...

He really, really wanted to go to the bookstore...

* * *

Sorry about the double oh my god what the hell I can't believe I wrote this piece of crap please forgive me why do you actually enjoy this


	10. HarryPotter is a bishounen in the making

I am sooo sorry about not posting this sooner. Just so you all know, uploads are going to be few and far between. I have been forever banned from , but using stealthy ninja abilities and the amazing 'delete history' button, I will continue to post (and read) stories. The only problem? I have to wait until either both my parents are out of the house or they're both asleep. Add that to my 'no computer during the weekdays' rule and, sorry, but speedy posting will pretty much be impossible.

On another note, Thank you to all the kind readers who have reviewed. Whenever I am in a particularly bad 'fly over the stars' mood, reading the reviews cheers me up.

It also stops me from killing my brother, lol.

* * *

Finally, after another several hours of sleep, I was ready to actually get up and do something that required my brain to function.

Harte was ecstatic about finally being able to go to the bookstore, pushing and pushing a little bit at a time to make me get ready just a little bit faster, but in barely noticable little bursts. In fact, sometimes I only realized he'd asked, or prompted, or helped, or something a couple minutes after he'd done it.

"Ok, little Indigo brat, how about you go downstairs and grab something to eat?"

"E-eat? A-at the Dursleys? I-I am only to eat what I have b-been given and I have n-not been-"'

"Harte."

He looked up at me, eyes wide.

"Their rules no longer apply. You're going to eat at least three times a day, alright? You're way too skinny. Just tell them that Bryan told you to, and if they give you trouble, yell, ok?"

He nodded and darted out the door, presumably to the stairs. I grabbed my phone, checink for anything I might have missed.

_One New Message..._

I clicked on it.

_I luv u bry._ _3 see u soon ;D_

I grinned, reading the message over again. Tala really knew how to cheer him up.

My happy mod was broken by a thin, high cry of, "Bryan!"

Falborg swept in through the wall, eyes wide.

"Bryan, you are needed now! Shinja is downstairs attempting to distract them, but there is only so much he can do!"

I ran downstairs, snarling angrily to myself. I should have never let him out of my sight!

I burst in through the kitchen door.

Harte was curled up in a ball on the floor, the fat man standing over him with his arm raised as if to smack the small child.

"Stop!"

And so the fat man did.

"You will not touch him, am I understood?"

I stalked forwards, looming over the wretched excuse for a human, eyes narrowed dagerously.

"I warned you. I told you not to hurt him. You heard me, correct?"

Vernon Dursley noded, shrinking in on himself.

"But you didn't listen, did you?"

No response.

"_Did you_?"

"N-no! N-n-no I d-d-didn't l-l-listen-n-n!"

"I will _not_ give you another warning! _Do you understand_? The next time you even _think_ about touching him, I will _shred_ you into such _tiny pieces_ that if the olice even _fid_ ypur body, they_ won't_ be able to recognize it. Well? _Do you_?"

"Y-yes!"

And Vernon Dursley fled.

"Harte? Harte, привидение, are you ok?"

He nodded at me, a small smile on his face.

"Th-thank you, B-bryan."

"No prob."

I lifted him up off the floor and onto my shoulder, ruffling his hair.

"Let's go to the bookstore."

"Yes! Let us!"

His face lit up and he giggled, but the giggled soon turned into coughs.

We needed to set up a doctor's appointment, too... Maybe with Hiro? He was supposed to be in england right around now...

Oh well. I'll call him when we gwet back.

* * *

Taking Harte to the bookstore was... entertaining. As soon as we walked in through the door, the kid limped off at full speed.

Within five minutes, he had a stack of books, which he furtivly hid behind the gardening section, and made his way to the graphic novels section.

He picked volume six of xxxHolic off the shelf, quicky adding volume three of Silver Diamond, much to my surprise, and volume two of MAR.

I leaned over and picked a book of my own off the shelf. Tala'd been looking for JtHM: Director's Cut forever.

I followed him back to his secluded little corner and watched as he laid out all the books in his pile, flipping them over so their price tags were easily visible. Then, he pulled a small coin pouch out of his pocket and out rolled... a small wad of cash?

He grinned sheepishly at my surprised expression.

"I told you the ladies at school gave me a little money. It just... kind of... accumulated?"

"You've gotta have, like, thirty dollars in there!"

"Fourty two dollars and ninety five cents. Which means..."

He shifted the books around into several different piles, muttering to himself.

"I could get two manga and two of the paperback... or three manga and one...? No, what about one manga and three..."

"How 'bout you get all of them and let me pay?"

I scooped all the books into my arms and started towards the check out, laughing at Harte's sputtered protests.

"But-but-"

"Nope. I'm paying, and you can't do anything about it. Sory."

I dropped the books onto the checkout, pulling my wallet out of my jacket pocket and shelling out three twenties. God, books were insanely expensive now a days... Well, at least I have a millionare of a friend that just loves to give away his money!

"You have such a cute little brother."

I glanced, shocked, at the cashier. Did we really look that much alike? Well, apparently...

I smirked.

"Yes, he's just so adorable, isn't he?"

Hatre blushed.

"Your total is 62.76. But..."

The clerk grinned at us.

"Since he's just soo adorable, and he has a good taste in books, I'l lend ou some of my store credt. That brings it down to 55. 67."

I handed her the twenties and collected my bag of books, smiling in thanks.

"Sir, your change-"

"Nah, it's good. Thanks for the discount!"

We walked out of the store, books in hand.

"You see that, привидение?"

I tickled his side.

"You're so cute, you get us discounts!"

Harte blushed again, brighter this time.

"You... did not mind her calling me your brother?"

"No, why? Should I? You're more like a little brother than a cousin, anyways..."

"The Dursleys..." he fidgeted nervously, fiddling with the sleeves of his too long shirt, "They do not like it if someone thinks I am related to them. In fact, they prefer if no one knows I exist."

He wrapped his arms around my legs in a flash-hug, one of the first times he'd actually initiated contact.

"Thank you."

"No prob, привидение. Now," I grinned and swung him up onto my shoulder, "Let's see if you can rustle us up a free lunch!"


	11. Bryan learns of Not Nice Things

After an exhausting book-and-lunch run, Harte and I (unfourtunately) made our way back to the Dursley household.

Harte had actually managed to get us a discount at lunch, too.

"Br-bryan?"

"Yeeeees?"

"Thank you very much... for the books, and lunch."

I ruffled the tiny kid's long hair before picking him up and setting him on my shoulder.

"I told you, Harte, it wasn't a problem. If you like books, then it's not that hard to get them."

Harte nodded, blushing.

"T-Thank you anyway."

"It was nothing."

I walked into the cookie-cutter house, grimacing as the skinny one started shrieking.

"Just where were you? The boy hasn't done a single chore all day and I have company over tonight!"

"And you did not think of just doing it yourself? Seriously?"

The irritating woman just sputtered some indignant crap about not being a maid, waving her arms around in the air like a windmill. It was actually kind of amusing, if you got past that horribly annoying voice of hers...

"You," I said, glaring just enough to shut her up, "Go do your own damn chores."

And with that, I made my dramatic exit, Harte perched on my shoulder. Yeah, I'm pretty badass, I know.

"S-sometimes Iwish I could tell her th-that," the little child whispered into my ear, breaking out in a small giggle fit.

"Mmhmm, I think everyone who's ever met her wanted to tell her to shove it at least once," I added, nodding my head in agreement.

Hopefully, I'd be able to keep Ian from setting her on fire. He seemed to like doing that, for some reason... Wow, I never realized how much I'd miss them if they were all abducted by aliens or kidnapped or otherwise missing from my life...

Well, I just had to wait one more day until I got to see them and introduce them to Harte. Hopefully Ian and my cousin would get along well...

"Hey, do you know who your aunt's inviting over tonight?"

Harte shook his head, ducking as we walked through the doorway to his room.

"N-no idea. I just hope it is not P-piers's mom..."

I dumped him and the bag of books on the bed, flopping down on the floor to pull off my boots.

"Who's Piers?"

"D-dudley's friend. Whenever his m-mom comes over... well, th-they get bored, and when they g-get bored... They usually start pl-playing their favourite game."

"What, Twister? Chutes and Ladders? I bet they play some sort of girly game. Maybe they play with Barbies?"

"...H-harry Hunting..."

Death. Death to fat little piggies.

"What, exactly, does... Harry-Hunting entail?"

I tried to contain my anger, but either I did a crappy job or he was using his empathy thingie and could feel it anyway, because he flinched a little bit.

"Umm... chasing me around, and when they catch me, they... hit me a little bit?"

When I leave, I am going to have a hawaiian babecue as a celebration. Fat, yummy, pork, _spitted. Over a fire._

"Eew. B-bryan, I do not think he would t-taste very good..."

"You're right," I said absently, standing up only to flop back on the bed, sending Hatre bouncing., "I should just feed them to Falborg- but it would probably make him sick- wait, I didn't say that out loud, did I? And where did Falborg and the random snake dude go, anyways?"

Harte shyly tapped his head.

"Oh. Ohhh. Telepathy/empathy thingie. Got it. Bjut, seriously, Falborg's dead. Where could they possibly hang out? A club? A dead bar?"

Harte giggled.

"Y-you would be surprised. Shinja can disappear for days on end. He always comes back in the end, though, so I do not mind."

"Eh."

Luckily for all involved, (though more for the Dursleys than anyone else) the rest of the day went smoothly. /neither Dudley or the other kid bothered us, and, after staying up 'till at least twelve, I made the tiny kid put his books away and go to sleep.

The next morning just about killed me, though. After staying up so late reading, we'd finished a lot of our books.

Which meant we had nothing left to do.

"Th-that crack in the ceiling looks like a fish."

I shrugged, staring at the aforementioned crack in the ceiling. Apparently I wasn't the only one boed out of muy mind. There wasn't aything to do but sit here!

"How did you keep from going nuts? There's nothing to do!"

"I never h-had time to sit in my room. I was always doing chores."

"Oh."

Congratulations Bry, you just won the Guinnes world recod=rd for sticking your foot in your mouth.

"Wanna go to the park?"

"Oh, yes, please!"

Hell, the kid looked so happy just 'cause I wanted to take him to the park...

"C'mon."

I picked him up and placed him on my shoulder and we both started down the stairs.


	12. Bryan attempts to get away with murder

The park was an interesting experience. It was almost like that was the one place Harte didn't need to squish himself into a hard-to-hit ball. He couldn't exactly run around like a normal kid, what with his leg and all, (Note to self: Get that looked at) but he more than made up for it with the swings.

Swings, apparently, were Harte's favorite things in the world. He told me that he loved the way it made him feel like he was flying- something he'd always wanted to do.

I was looking over at the tiny child snuggled into the blankets on the small bed, exhausted from spending the entire day at the park, clinging to the pillow as if it were the last thing on earth, when the soft vibrations of my cellphone nearly gave me a heart attack.

"Hello?" I grumbled, not really happy with whoever decided to call me at eleven freakin' o' clock at night.

"_Oh Bry, I thought you'd sound happier to hear me. Run off with someone new, have you_?"

"Tala!"

I heard my lover chuckling from the other side of the phone.

"_Yes, Bry, Tala. Forget about me already?"_

"Of course not- but, Tal, why are you calling so late?"

"_We just got off the airplane. We'll be there to see you tomorrow, Bry. I- No, Ian, you can't set that on fire- Kai, control your cat!- Sorry, I miss you, gotta go before Ian burns down the airport- how he made it through security with a lighter I don't know- Love you!"_

"I love you too, Tal," I laughed, "See you."

"_Bye!"_

The line went dead, and I nearly squeed in excitement. They were coming, and soon, I could get Harte and myself out of this godforsaken place!

* * *

I woke up with the sun, quietly getting dressed and inching out the t=room, trying not to wake Harte.

Attempt failed.

"B-bryan?"

"I'm just going to get us something to eat before your... relatives wake up. Stay here- I'll be right back, ok?"

The tiny child nodded, and I scooted across the hallway and down the stairs near silently, for once thanking the Abbey training Voltaire had forced on us.

Quickly coming to the kitchen, I rifled through the pantry and the fridge, grabbing some breakfast basics- some bread, a couple of pieces of fruit, some granola- and turned around quickly, bumping into something large and squishy.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, _boy_," ,y horribly fat uncle glared down at me, attempting to be intimidating.

As if.

"Getting something to eat for Harte and myself," I answered cooly, trying to edge my way around the bulk blocking the doorway. How the fat walrus had managed to make his way behind me without my noticing I'll never find out...

"Ha!"

Vernon- what a horrible name, I thought idly to myself, as if his parents knew he'd grow up to be a nasty jerk- knocked the food out of my arms with a flabby arm.

"The freak doesn't work, he doesn't eat."

I glared, crouching down and scooping the food back into my arms, mostly for something to do besides murdering the abusive sonuvabitch in front of me.

"Harte will not be working for you any longer. In fact, as soon as I am able I will be leaving here and taking him with me."

"B-bryan, p-lease, i-it's alright..."

Harte, the little devil, had somehow managed to sneak downstairs, behind me. He cowered a little, scuttling over to the stove to begin making what I assumed was breakfast for the rest of the family.

"Stop," I ordered, tone authoritative, and the skinny child immediately halted his actions.

"Don't you dare stop, you little freak!"

Harte looked back and forth between me and his uncle, not sure who to listen to.

"Harte," I said softly, pushing the food I carried into his arms, "take this and go upstairs."

"I swear, if you move away from that stove I'll beat you so bad it'll make Christmas look like a walk on the park," the fat man hissed.

Harte curled in on himself, clearly terrified and about to burst into tears. I picked him up and placed him behind me, patting him on the head and waving him towards the staircase.

"Go on," I said, turning back to glare at the man who was (unfortunately for me) related to me only to get a fist in the face.

Shit.

The fat man, not seeing any signs of retaliation, backhanded me again, nearly throwing me to the floor. Unfortunately, all that fat meant he had a lot of force buildup, just from swinging his arm.

"N-no! Stop- s-st-top it, s-stop it, p-please!"

Harte whimpered, dropping the food on the floor and scrambling in front of me.

"P-please d-don't h-h-hurt him, U-uncle, p-please- ah!"

I wasn't quick enough to block the next blow from i=hitting it's mark- Harte's face. The hit sent him crashing to the floor, the tiny kid letting out a pained cry as his already battered body was thrown down.

I saw red.

I don't know how it happened, but one second I was standing behind Harte and the next I was on top of the fat bastard, one hand wrapped around his throat.

"If you hurt him again, KI will kill you," I hissed, eyes glowing from the rage that was coursing through my body. Some small part of me warned against those feelings, the dark ones that I'd hidden away after the Abbey, warned against frightening Harte with them, but I was too pissed off to care.

"I'll kill you, and it won't be quick," I whispered, eyes flaring, "Oh no, not quick at all. I'll... remove things. Things you might not react so well to being removed, if you catch my drift..."

The man pinned beneath me whimpered pathetically, begging for his worthless life. I felt small hands latch onto my shirt, trying to pull me away, and it took all of my self control from whirling around and snarling at whoever was trying to prevent me from punishing the bastard.

"B-bryan, _p-p-please_, p-please just l-leave it be, you-you're sc-caring me, B-bryan!"

I snapped out of it, tearing myself away from thoughts of torturing the ugly man on the floor and whirled around, lifting Harte into my arms and walking out the door.

"I'm leaving, and I'm taking Harte with me. Expect the proper paperwork to arrive within the next couple of days. I'll be back tomorrow to pick up our things. If anything's been damaged or if you don't sign off..." I smirked, turning to face Vernon, who had scrambled away from me, "I'll come back, and I'll make you, got it?"

At the fat man's nod, I left, slamming the door behind me.


	13. The Meeting, at Last

Oh my God I am so sorry for my horrible schedule keeping.

**~!IMPORTANT!~**

I've rewritten pretty much chapter three and on, because the whole 'wings' thing really wasn't fitting into the story. So if you are really confused, this is why. Plus, since Harry/Harte isn't an Alraune anymore, I had to change Hayato/Shinja. Soo...

Yeah.

Here you go.

* * *

I stormed out of the house, snarling curse words and death threats under my breath, my arms curled protectively around Harte.

"B-bryan, p-please, I-I-I am s-sorry, d-do not b-be angry w-with me, p-please," the tiny child whimpered, shaky hands clenched in my shirt. I made a conscious effort to stop my anger, trying to block it from Harte's empathy, trying to keep from scaring him like I was sure I'd already had.

"Hush, привидение," I whispered, running a careful hand over his arms and back, checking for any damage from the fall, "I'm not angry at you- never at you. It's them," I had to stop again, reign in my anger, before continuing, "I'm angry at them for hurting you. It is not right."

We arrived at the park and I set the tiny child down on the swings, pulling out my cellphone.

"We'll just get to meet my friends sooner, mmkay?"

Harte nodded.

I dialed in the familiar number and waited for whomever had stolen the phone from Tala this time to answer.

"_BRYAN!"_

I quickly moved the phone, holding it an arm's length away from my ear.

"Nice to hear from you too, Ian," I laughed, bringing the phone back up to my ear as soon as the kid had calmed down, "Is Tala or Kai there?"

"_Yeah, Kai's here. Oi! KAI! BRYAN'S ON THE PHONE!"_

I heard some yelling and a scuffle before Kai's voice drifted through the speakers, thankfully more quiet than Ian's.

"_God, that kid has a set of lungs on him. Why are you calling?"_

"I can't just call to call?"

I could practically feel the teen roll his eyes.

"_You _never_ 'call just to call', Bryan. What happened?"_

"I... kind of went nuts on my supposed uncle," I muttered into the phone, "Any way we could show up early? We're at a park right now."

"_We?"_

"Harte and I. There was no way in hell I was leaving him there."

"_..."_

"Oi, Kai? Hiwatari, if you hung up on me I swear-"

"_Patience. I'm currently having to play keep away with Ian- Spencer probably gave the little idiot sugar again. We'll be there to pick you up in about ten minutes, assuming you're still in the same area."_

"We're in a park about three minutes away from the house. See you."

As usual, Kai hung up without any parting words.

I turned my attention to the small kid who'd been quietly swinging the entire conversation.

"Did you hear that? My friends shall be here in a few minutes to pick us up."

"...Us?" he asked, looking up at me with wide eyes, "You are... really taking me with you?"

"Of course."

I kneeled in front of the swing, catching it by the chains and pulling it, and subsequently Harte, closer to me.

"I told you I wasn't gonna leave you with those idiots, didn't I? I never had any intention of leaving here without you."

I froze, eyes wide in surprise as the kid flung his arms around me, hugging me tightly.

"Thank you," he whispered, "Thank you thank you thank you."

My hands moved almost on their own, reaching up and wrapping around the skinny frame.

"What if your friends do not like me?" Harte asked quietly, looking up at me fearfully.

"They will," I answered back, not even remotely doubtful, "Tala's already freaking out about how cute you are, and Ian can't wait to meet someone closer to is age. You'll be fine," I comforted, patting him on the head and lifting him up off the swings.

"Aiji?"

"Shinja! You have come back!"

I turned around and saw the large snake slithering through the park's grass, feeling a familiar warmth in my Beyblade soon after.

"Falborg's back too. Have fun hanging out with that bag of feathers?" I smirked, deciding to ignore the fact that the snake was speaking English for the moment- maybe he was a bitbeast or something, yeah, that made sense- well as much sense as sentient spirits being used as weapons of mass destruction in a children's game did, anyways...

"Yes, I did have fun...'hanging out' with my shin'yuu."

I could have sworn the snake was smirking at me...

"Aiji, why are you out so early?"

Harte held out his arms and the snake slithered up them, wrapping himself around the small child and giving him a light lick on the cheek.

"B-bryan promised he would take me away from here, Otousan. He told me that I could live with him."

The snake- whom Harte had called Father, of all things- swiveled it's head to stare at me with the most unearthly flashing gold eyes, which stood out against the flat black of its head.

"I will be allowed to come with my Aiji."

It was not a question.

Having no desire to be bitten by a potentially poisonous snake, I nodded quickly.

"Of course. I would not think to separate you when it is obvious that Harte cares for you a lot. I honestly have no idea how I am going to explain you to the others, though," I grumbled, spotting a steel grey Koenigsegg Agera with custom red lights and racing stripes, Kai's favourite car for the moment.

Showoff.

"See that car, Harte?"

I pointed it out to him, grinning as his eyes widened at the sight of it.

"Oh wow... That is your friend's car?"

I nodded, waving to the rich bastard driving. Said bastard proceeded to drift his car into a perfect parallel park.

God_dammit_ I was so jealous.

"Bryan!"

Tala jumped out of the passenger seat and slid over the hood of the car, landing on his feet in front of me (which was fairly impressive once one noted his tendency to trip over air.)

"Tal, it's great to see you," I said, pointing to the increasingly shy little boy hiding behind me, "This is Harte. Harte, this is Tala. He's one of my... friends."

"Oh my god, Bry, he's adorable! Hi!" the red head said, crouching down to eye level and holding out a hand for my cousin to shake, "I'm Tala and it's very nice to- HOLY SHIT THAT'S A SNAKE!"

Tala then proceeded to scramble back and jumped up Spencer's shoulders, who'd climbed out of the car moments earlier.

"OhmygodBryangetitgetit-WHYareyoujuststandingthere!"

"I believe I forgot to mention that Tala's afraid of snakes," I laughed, though the laugh turned to a groan not three seconds later with the advent of- you guessed it- Ian.

"I heard Tala screaming about a snake, where is it? Can I see?"

The explosivly unlucky bratling bounced out of the car and straight up to the already overwhelmed Harte and peered down at the large snake.

"Oh wow, that's a Okinawan coral snake! How the hell are you getting it to stay so still?"

"Shinja is... a very special snake," Harte murmured quietly, looking down and edging behind me.

"Are its scales_ glowing_?"

"I am not an it, you gaki," Shinja hissed, and I heard Falborg laughing his ass off inside my head.

Apparently Shinja had very little patience for those he didn't know.

"D-d-did it j-just..._ t-t-alk?_!"

Rei and Kai, the last two out of the car, stared dumbstruck at the now revealed talking snake. Spencer was his typical 'Anything less than Boris dancing in a tutu to Hannah Montana music is nothing' self, simply staring down at the snake in slight bemusement. Tala was flipping out slightly less than before, more shocked than panicked.

"It's a bit beast, right?" he asked weakly, staring at me, then the snake, then Harte, and all over again, "For the sake of my sanity tell me it's a bit beast. Please."

"I am sorry, but I am not what you call me. I am a Reiki-Hebi, an Aural Snake. I am much more intelligent and much more deadly than a common Coral snake," Shinja huffed, hissing some rather unkind words and both Tala and Ian before continuing, "I am Harte's Master, though our relationship is more along the lines of a father and child."

Rei shocked us all even more by bowing to the snake, lowering his eyes respectfully.

"Língqì dàshī," he murmured, "It is an honour to meet you."

We were all shocked even more when the snake bowed back.

"Kon Rei. I see you recognize what, if not who, I am. There are few still taught the old ways. But enough of this," Shinja hissed, shaking his head in an almost human gesture, "You are here for my Aiji, not I."

"Well," I said, coughing awkwardly, "Now that we have the talking snake bit out of the way, we can get on to the introductions!"

Everyone stared at him.

"Um, yeah, Harte, you already met Tala," I said, waving towards the freaked out redhead, "And this little brat, the one who fanboyed over your snake, is Ian."

My teammate stuck out his hand awkwardly, laughing at himself.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, "I just get exited. The snake is really cool, by the way- with the whole talking thing and all. Does he have a name?"

"Sh-shinja," Harte murmured quietly, tentatively grasping the other's hand and shaking it, "H-his name is Shinja. I-It's nice to meet you, Ian."

Ian grinned, raising a hand to ruffle the (finally!) smaller boy's hair, only to drop it as he flinched back.

"It's really nice to meet you too, Harte. I'm the youngest one on my team," he grimaced, making a funny face at the older boys, "and it's gonna be awesome to have someone around that's not_ old_~!"

"Who're you calling old, you little shrimp!"

Tala launched himself off Spencer's shoulders and proceeded to chase him around the playground, yelling curses.

"Don't worry about them, that's normal," Rei said, smiling at Harte, "I'm Rei Kon. You're Harte, right?"

I smiled at my cousin and nudged him out from behind my legs.

"Go on," I whispered encouragingly, "I promise he's not gonna eat you."

I watched as Rei shook hands with the tiny child, talking with him quietly.

"He's too small."

I glanced over at Kai, who was staring at my cousin with narrowed eyes.

"I know."

"And too thin."

"I know," I sighed, "I need to schedule an appointment with Hiro. He's... unwell."

As if responding to my words, Harte covered his mouth with a hand and hacked into it harshly, the force of the coughs shaking his small frame.

I watched as Spencer, who'd been introducing himself, patted him gently on the back in an attempt to halt the coughing spell before lifting him up and carrying him over to me.

"Harte, привидение, are you feeling worse?" I asked, scooping him into my arms and pressing a hand against his forehead.

"I- no, Bryan, I am fine," he answered quietly, "It will fade in a minute."

"Well, it's about time we left anyways," Tala said cheerfully, holding Ian upside down by his ankles and hiding his concern from all but me, "We still need to make some appointments and get some lunch!"

Harte nodded and threw a small smile in Tala's direction, making the supposedly mature teen squeal at the sheer cuteness.

We piled into the car, Kai in the damn driver's seat (dammit) and got the hell out of that damn neighborhood.

* * *

Here you are, my wonderful readers. I thank all you who have reviewed, you make me so happy.

Translations-

привидение- Russian- rough translation: Ghost

Língqì dàshī- Chinese- rough translation: Aura Master, Reiki Master

Aiji- Japanese- Beloved Child

Otousan- Japanese- Father

* * *

OK, in case you didn't read the top Author's note, I rewrote a lot from chapter three on, so if you're confused, you should re-read it.

Thank you all for your reviews, and I'm sorry I'm not a better poster-upper, but it's hard since I'm not allowed on the website, lol.

PS. Shameless self advertisement time! I have a poll up on my profile, who wants to go vote?


	14. The Meeting, from the Midget's POV

I solemly swear I will post up less crap.

Forgive me, dear readers, for waiting for nearly a freaking year to post up more of this shit.

However, this being my senior year, I have to deal with all the fun of ACT's, SAT's, college applications, scholarship essays, creating portfolios, re creating 12 paintings because my bastard of an art teacher didn't like any of them, so now I have nothing to enter in a competition, and my parents not thinking that a freaking 28 on my ACT's and a 1960 on my SAT's isn't good enough.

Yeah, sooo, sorry if I take a long time, I'm probably in a mental institution suffering a nervous breakdown.

* * *

_-Harte's POV-_

When Bryan said I was to be meeting his friends, I didn't know what to do. What if they hated me? What if they were mean- what if Bryan didn't want me as a brother anymore because of them? Even with my powers I couldn't sense everything.

He could be hiding his real emotions from me, or they could change. I... I felt like I could trust him, but... Things can change, they can change so fast...

I sat on the swings, quietly swinging back and forth, too deep in thought to even enjoy my favourite thing of all time.

I was... scared.

For the first time ever, I actually had something that was worth taking away. I had something that I would miss, something that would hurt-

I didn't want to lose Bryan, but... but that was probably what was going to happen. I had to... I had to keep myself from getting too attached- I should have kept myself from getting to attached! How stupid I am! It always ends like this- they always leave, so why, why would _he_ stay? How could I let myself _hope_-

"Did you hear that?"

Bryan looked down at me, a small smile quirking his lips upward.

"My friends shall be here in a few minutes to pick us up."

_Us_. He said _us_. Still-! No, I can't- I _can't_-

"...Us? You are... really taking me with you?"

Of course he's not! He wouldn't want a freak like you-

"Of course."

He kneeled in front of my swing, grabbing the chains and pulling me close, to my surprise.

"I told you I wasn't gonna leave you with those idiots, didn't I? I never had any intention of leaving here without you."

I can't let myself get attached-!

I couldn't help it. I threw myself forward, like a dog begging for attention, and wrapped my arms around him.

"Thank you," I whispered, shaking, even though I didn't believe a word, it was still nice to be reassured like this, "Thank you thank you thank you..."

He hugged me back, to my surprise. Or not. Maybe... maybe I could trust hi- NO! No, I can't, I just can't- not again...

"What... what if your friends do not like me?"

Would I get sent back? Would he leave me here, or would he take me to an orphanage or-

"They will," he answered, sounding fairly confident, "Tala's already freaking out about how cute you are, and Ian can't wait to meet someone closer to is age. You'll be fine."

He patted me on the head, ignoring or not noticing my flinch, and picked me up off the swing. I clung to him immediately, my arms snaking around his neck, hoping he wouldn't decide to drop me.

"Aiji?"

I turned to the hissing voice.

"Shinja! You have come back!"

The large snake slithered out of the bushes surrounding the small park, smiling as only a snake could smile in my direction. I felt a rush of emotions fly past, embedding themselves in the odd top Bryan had called a... bey-blade.

"Falborg's back too," he said, "Have fun hanging out with that bag of feathers?"

Shinja hissed a laugh in response, smirking up at the other boy.

"Yes, I did have fun...'hanging out' with my shin'yuu."

He turned towards me, head tilted to the side.

"Aiji, why are you out so early?"

I held out my arms, silently pleading for the snake to come closer.

"B-bryan promised he would take me away from here, Otousan. He told me that I could live with him."

Shinja turned to look at Bryan, eyes flashing, and I held my breath. Shinja wouldn't let anything bad happen to me... He was testing Bryan. Testing him to make sure he wouldn't hurt me... Soul-gazing.

Shinja said he'd teach me how to do it when I got older.

"I will be allowed to come with my Aiji."

I felt some respect, a little fear, a load of caution, but mostly relief from Bryan. As if he was... relieved that Shinja was letting him take me...?

"Of course," he answered politely, looking the snake directly in the eyes, "I would not think to separate you when it is obvious that Harte cares for you a lot. I honestly have no idea how I am going to explain you to the others, though."

He stared off, and I head a car approaching.

"See that car, Harte?"

I turned to look, more curious as to what caused such envy to race through him than anything else, and oh wow, I may not know cars, but I knew that one was very, very pretty.

And probably expensive.

"Oh, wow... Is that your friend's car?"

He nodded, smiling at me and setting me on the ground (I didn't miss being held, I _didn't_-) before waving to whoever was driving, and they did an odd sliding maneuver to get the car into an empty parking spot.

"Bryan!"

A tall red haired teen jumped out of the car, sliding over the hood and landing in front of us with a giggle.

"Tal, it's great to see you," my cousin answered, and the emotions constantly swirling around him solidified for an instant, and there was so much love-

"This is Harte," I heard him say. I hid behind him, afraid that this person, the one Bryan felt so much love for and who felt so much love for him in return, wouldn't like me. Would make Bryan get rid of me. Would-

"Oh my god, Bry, he's adorable! Hi!" I was shaken out of my increasingly dark thoughts by the redhead's squeal and subsequent greeting, and I shyly took the offered hand.

"I'm Tala and it's very nice to- HOLY SHIT THAT'S A SNAKE!"

I jumped behind Bryan, startled, and the redhead scrambled away, climbing up the shoulders of a really- oh, dear, _really_ tall teenager.

"OhmygodBryangetitgetit-WHYareyoujuststandingthere!"

I looked, scared, up at Bryan, who just started laughing in response.

"I believe I forgot to mention that Tala's afraid of snakes," Bryan said, smirking down at me, but that smirk turned into a suffering groan not three seconds later.

"I heard Tala screaming about a snake, where is it? Can I see?"

A short kid with- of all colours- purple hair bounced out of the car and directly at me, and it was all I could do not to cower behind Bryan.

"Oh wow, that's a Okinawan coral snake! How the hell are you getting it to stay so still?"

"Shinja is... a very special snake," I murmured quietly, giving in to the urge to cower and edging slightly behind my much taller cousin.

"Are its scales_ glowing_?"

Oh dear.

"I am not an _it,_ you gaki," Shinja hissed, rearing up to almost eye level with the other.

Shinja has very little patience for those he deemed... unintelligent.

"D-d-did it j-just..._ t-t-alk?_!"

Oh dear, again. The last two teenagers out of the car- a feminine looking boy with cat eyes and another boy with face paint- stared at Shinja in shock.

I forgot he could make other people but me understand him...

The redhead wasn't really freaking out anymore, which, he guessed, was a good thing, and the really, really tall blonde boy was just looking down at Shinja, amused.

"It's a bit beast, right?" he asked weakly, gaze flicking from me, to Bryan, to Shinja, and over and over again, "For the sake of my sanity tell me it's a bit beast. Please."

"I am sorry-"

No he wasn't.

"-but I am not what you call me. I am a Reiki-Hebi, an Aural Snake. I am much more intelligent and much more deadly than a common Coral snake."

I shook my head at the cursing snake, blushing a little at the language.

"I am Harte's Master, though our relationship is more along the lines of a father and child."

The feminine boy, the one with the cat eyes, bowed to Shinja, saying something in a language I didn't recognize.

"Kon Rei."

Oh. Well, I suppose the boy-girl thing had to have a name..

"I see you recognize what, if not who, I am. There are few still taught the old ways. But enough of this," Shinja hissed, shaking his head towards me, "You are here for my Aiji, not I."

"Well, now that we have the talking snake bit out of the way, we can get on to the introductions!"

Everyone stared at him, me included. Did he really think everyone was going to just get over a talking snake so quickly?

"Um, yeah, Harte, you already met Tala," Bryan laughed awkwardly, waving towards still-in-shock redhead, "And this little brat, the one who fanboyed over your snake, is Ian."

The other boy, only taller than me by a few inches, presented his hand, laughing a little at my cousin's comment.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, "I just get exited. The snake is really cool, by the way- with the whole talking thing and all. Does he have a name?"

"Sh-shinja," I stuttered, reaching forward and shaking the offered appendage, "H-his name is Shinja. I-It's nice to meet you, Ian."

Ian raised his hand towards me and I flinched away, cursing my inability to control my own reactions nearly instantly. He didn't look at me oddly, though. He just... dropped the hand and stared at me, and he was sad, and... he understood.

"It's really nice to meet you too, Harte," Ian said happily, almost as if he hadn't felt that flash of sympathetic sadness less than three seconds ago, "I'm the youngest one on my team," he grimaced, making a funny face at the older boys, "and it's gonna be awesome to have someone around that's not_ old_~!"

The redhead seemed to take offense to that statement, if the yelled, "Who're you calling old, you little shrimp!" and the subsequent chase had anything to say about it.

"Don't worry about them, that's normal," the girly black-haired one said, smiling down at me, "I'm Rei Kon. You're Harte, right?"

Ooh. Well, Rei was a nicer name than girly looking one, so...

Bryan pushed me out from behind his legs, and in a fit of bitter terror I clung to him, shivering. I didn't want to go, I didn't know any of these people, what if they hurt me?

"Go on," he whispered, "I promise he's not gonna eat you."

I-if Bryan trusted them, and I... somewhat trusted Bryan, then I could somewhat trust them by default, right?

I hesitantly edged out from behind Bryan's leg, staring up at the girly- uh, Rei.

"H-hi," I stuttered, "I-it is n-nice to meet you..."

Rei smiled at me gently, and... well, there was this aura of calm and peace that just radiated off of him...

"It's nice to meet you as well, little jingshen."

It was almost hard to focus.

"How are you _doing_ that?" I asked, calm-y waves relaxing me far more than I ought to be in an open area surrounded by strangers.

"Doing what, jingshen?"

"That!" I jabbed a finger at the near visible waves of calm, "The calm, the patience, the peace, it is coming off you in waves!"

Oh dear, what am I thinking? He's going to be angry at me now-

...He was... laughing?

"Oh, jingshen, I should have known that a Reiki-Hebi would have picked a special child to become attached to. The waves are a part of being a Mao Yao, or a cat demon."

"Cat demon..."

Oh.

Maybe...

Maybe that meant... I wasn't such a freak after all?

"Hello, Harte."

I jumped and whirled around, the towering blonde having snuck up behind me.

He was so _tall_-!

It became a little easier to breathe when he crouched down to my level, waving at me calmly. If anything, this teen was even more calm than the girly- Rei had been!

"My name is Spencer," he continued, making no move to reach towards me.

"H-hello, Spencer, it is nice t-"

My words dissolved into a fit of hacking, painful coughs, the large teen reaching over to pat me gently on the back before scooping me up and carrying me to Bryan.

I was too busy focusing on keeping essential internal organs from becoming external to freak out about being picked up.

"Harte, привидение, are you feeling worse?"

Bryan scooped me into his arms and pressed a cool hand to my forehead.

"I- no, Bryan, I am fine," I answered, trying to ease my stuttered breathing to something a little more healthy sounding, "It will fade in a minute."

"Well, it's about time we left anyways," the redhead said cheerfully, holding Ian upside down by his ankles and seeming quite happy about it, "We still need to make some appointments and get some lunch!"

I just nodded, throwing a polite, if tiny smile in the redhead's direction and hiding my face at his rather embarrassing squealing.

Bryan, still holding me in his arms, wedged himself into the back seat of the car with Rei and Ian and we drove off to...

Well, I honestly had no idea where we were going.

* * *

There you have it. Crap chapter number fourteen.

Aiji- (aee-gee) rough trans. Beloved child

привидение- (pree-vee-dee-neeyah) rough trans. Ghost

Jingshen- (zhing-shun) rough trans Spirit


	15. Details Details

Okay, so I've decided how I'm going to do this.

I've fixed the doubled chapter for this story, and I'm going to leave it up as is while I post the revised copy under a new name, Harteland.

I might take this down when I revise to the point this ends, or I might not. They will be very different, after all. Almost entirely different. Thus, those of you who actually like this trainwreck can enjoy it for quite a bit longer, and those of you who are interested in the rewrite can go check it out.

So yeah. Please, if you have any feedback on what you'd like to see fixed or any editing ideas, don't be afraid to pipe up. I love opinions and people talking to me.

(pleasefortheloveofgodtalktome)

EDIT: THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE REMAKE HAS BEEN UPLOADED


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